The Captain's Wife
by SpellCleaver
Summary: Cress Darnel has a fairly predictable life, with friends, a job, and little to no romantic relationships. So when her father engages her to his friend's arrogant son her world is turned upside down. A battle of rich tycoons, wills, and long-lost family results in a very... interesting adventure for Cress and her friends. Cresswell, Kaider, and Wolflet. AH/AU. DISCONTINUED.
1. minus one

**The Captain's Wife**

"You cannot be serious."

The shout came from a surprising quarter. Crescent Moon Darnel would usually have been described by everyone who knew her to be quiet, gentle, generally submissive, and an undoubtable daydreamer. Her house, where she lived with her father after her mother passed away, was always quiet, what with her own shyness that kept her from inviting her friends from work over and the fact that her father, as a rich lawyer with a busy schedule, could rarely be found at home. At a young age Cress had learned domestic skills such as cooking and cleaning, and looking after herself completely independently. That loneliness and the fact that often her only company was electronic devices had led to her being remarkably good with computers. Hence her job at the most advanced computer security company in the city of Artemisia, the capital of her homeland, Luna.

But now? One of the rare times her father had come home to the unnecessarily large house they shared before she turned in for the night, he'd sprung on her the unwelcome news that he had arranged a marriage for her to his client's son, Carswell Thorne.

"I won't. I _won't_. I refuse."

She'd heard of him, certainly. Being the rich son of a famous company owner, Thorne had always been in the spotlight, much like Cress, who'd always cowered from it. Therefore it had been plastered over the newspapers of Luna when he'd been arrested for shoplifting some years ago as a teenager.

She'd even met the man on several occasions; this wasn't the first time her father had helped his mother with legal matters. He'd dropped out of the army shortly into his training, and had barely met it to the rank of Cadet, yet he insisted on her calling him Captain, on account of his fancy car, his "ship". She'd always found him insufferably arrogant, and had often had to excuse herself from his company before she started harbouring violent thoughts. Cress was not a violent girl.

Nevertheless, she found herself tugging insistently on her long blonde hair - loose against her simple night dress - in distress. A distant part of her was alarmed she would rip it out of her head but the rest of her mind dismissed the notion. It wasn't exactly uncalled for.

Taking a deep breath, she spun on the balls of her feet to face her father again. His short, unthreatening stature did nothing to help her look him in the pale blue eye - so similar to her own - since she had inherited the same height from him, meaning she still wasn't quite as tall as him. She flexed her hands in exasperation. The feeling was a foreign one to her, she not usually having the guts or inclination to be exasperated at someone. She wasn't quite sure what to do with it.

So she spoke. In her same quiet unauthorative, uncommanding voice, but for once he listened, and nodded along as she spoke. She still couldn't be certain he was considering her words, though.

"I don't want to have an arranged marriage, Dad. I want the chance to fall in love, or at least have a say in who I'm with. I don't want to be forced into a union with someone I barely know and despise the little I do know about him, just for the sake of a company or money. I want to make my own path."

"Crescent," she almost cringed at how gentle he was being, like he still thought she was a little girl. Who knew; maybe she was, and was acting like one. "You have to know that I would never offer your hand to someone I didn't think would be good enough for you, or provide for you sufficiently. I know my distance may not have conveyed this message, but I love you. If I thought this Carswell Thorne was going to hurt you - and before you say anything, yes, I do know about his criminal record - I would never even consider this. I wouldn't let him in the same country as you. But his mother is a dear friend of mine, and her boy needs this, not only to calm his reputation, but to force him to settle down and shoulder some responsibility."

Cress looked down, unable to meet her father's kind eyes. He reached out a hand and tilted her head back, wiping away a tear. She hadn't even realised she was crying. "And believe it or not, you need it too. I know you have friends at work, but you never invite them round here, you barely go out, you have an inactive life. You're only twenty, Crescent, you need to be out there with your friends, living life to the fullest. Not moping around this empty house."

Cress had never understood why her fond but admittedly distracted father had made a good lawyer; he was too soft. But she saw in now, with the way he spoke, his utter conviction in what he was saying. She found she couldn't refuse.

She nodded slowly, not meeting his eyes, but she saw him smile. His hand around her chin fell away, and just before he disappeared through the door he turned to say, "By the way, I invited your fiancé and his mother over for dinner tomorrow night. A nice friendly official meeting in a pleasant environment."

Cress took a deep breath to calm herself. It paid off as her father continued with his excited rambling.

"So that means you'll have to take tomorrow afternoon off work to go to the shop and buy yourself a nice dress. You'll want to look your best. Maybe you could take that friend from work you told me about - Mindy?"

"Cinder." Cress muttered beneath the stream of his rant.

"And she could help you pick out your outfit, and possibly do your makeup..."

"That's not exactly what Cinder likes doing, Dad," she muttered again, no more confident that he would bother to listen than she had been the first time.

"Just make sure you look your best, sweetheart, okay? We don't want this deal to go sour."

And just like that, Cress's views on the whole thing were reverted back to the beginning.

* * *

"So let me get this straight," Cinder laughed, though to her credit, it wasn't a laugh of amusement, but of disbelief. "Your father, big business owner guy, has arranged a marriage for you to one of his clients' sons?"

"That's exactly it," Cress grumbled, not quite meeting her friend's sympathetic brown eyes. "And he asked me to ask you to take me shopping for a 'nice dress' this afternoon." She made air quotes with her fingers, before spinning in her chair back to face the computer screen full of code.

Cinder extracted a screwdriver from the pouch at her waist, expertly twisting the handle to embed the screw into the side of the computer box she was fixing. "Sounds like torture," she remarked cheerfully, before her face fell into a more wistful expression. "Sounds like something Peony would enjoy."

Cress cringed. Cinder's father, Garan Linh, had had her dumped on his doorstep at a few days old, her mother not having the will to put up with her. When Cinder was eleven, her father had married a woman, Adri, who already had two daughters: Pearl and Peony. Garan had died soon after and when Cinder was eighteen, Peony, who had been the only one she viewed as family, had caught the same bout of disease going round and died. Blamed for her father and stepsister's deaths, she'd been cast out on the street and eventually got an apprenticeship with a mechanic, Dr Erland, who'd taught her everything she now knew about machines, and who had given her the shop she now owned so he could go travelling in his old age.

Cress remained silent as Cinder sank into her pain-ridden past. When she popped back up, it was with a deceptively bright smile. "But I know someone who might be interested in helping. She's certainly more qualified than me to say whether a dress is nice or not."

"Don't court yourself out so quickly, Cinder," came a voice from the door. Cress jumped, but Cinder turned to the source like the dark side of the moon to the sun.

Kaito Prince, the owner of the firm Cress worked at and Cinder was often employed for repairs by, stood in the doorway, light streaming from the opening window behind him, catching the glint of the gold band on his ring finger - the gold band that matched Cinder's. He had his signature put together yet messy look, with a suit, crisp white shirt and red and gold tie, but rumpled long hair and creased trousers. He smiled brilliantly at his wife, who reciprocated the gesture.

"Don't count yourself out so quickly," he repeated, gaze fixed on her like she was the first sunrise he'd ever seen. "You always look beautiful."

Cinder blushed violently. Her inability to hide what she was feeling was what Cress had always liked most about her; you could always rely on the fact that what she was saying was the truth.

Cinder brushed a lock of brown hair out of her face, smearing a long line of grease across her forehead in the process, but that obviously didn't mar the image of her reflected in Kai's brown eyes.

"Kai?" Cress regretfully butted in on their moment, but he rarely came to the office and she really needed to ask permission to skip work later that day. "Could I possibly leave the office early today and take Cinder with me?"

Kai furrowed his brows in confusion; she was more likely to be seen pulling extra hours than cutting them. "If you must. Why?" He turned to his wife as he noticed Cress's beseeching look. "Cinder?"

The mechanic in question rolled her eyes. "Cress's father has engaged her to this guy and she's supposed to be meeting him for dinner this evening. She asked me to help her pick out a dress."

Kai nodded, sending Cress an apologetic glance at her predicament. She shrugged. "Okay," he acquiesced. "Take all the time you need. It's not like you haven't got over a month's worth of hours saved up for breaks and whatnot."

Cress shot him a thankful smile as Cinder turned to her. "Meet me at the shop at noon. I need to be getting back." She raised herself onto her tiptoes and kissed her husband's cheek. "Try not to break another computer whilst I'm away."

He gave her a rueful smile. "I'll do my best."

She patted him on the shoulder and sashayed out the door. Kai stood there awkwardly for an instant, before nodding at Cress and walking out. Kai had inherited the company from his father, and Cress had heard some of the older employees whisper that he didn't have the same charisma, the same self-assurance, that the late Rikan had had. He wasn't meant for this position.

And yet, despite the criticism, he'd still found himself in a happy marriage, with the presence of true love.

"You're so lucky," she whispered to the air, as the door swung shut.

* * *

 **This will be mainly Cresswell, but there'll be lots of Kaider and Wolflet as well.**

 **Review?**


	2. zero

Cress rarely visited Cinder in her shop, but she certainly knew where it was. She drove past it everyday on her way to work and if she was especially early, when she was caught in the traffic lights, Cinder would come out and insist she didn't need to be at the office so early; that Kai wasn't anywhere near being upset with her and she was at no risk of being fired. Cress being Cress, even in the face of a friend's kindness, she simply looked down and bore the talks, wrapping her elbow length hair round her wrists, before proceeding to go into work at precisely the same time the next day. Often Kai would chuckle when she came in; his wife no doubt venting her frustration to him.

Nevertheless, it felt awkward when she tentatively pushed the door open to the store and stepped in. The pleasant ringing bounced around the room, the sound becoming warped and distorted by the array of broken metal parts hanging off racks attached to the walls. A counter with the top covered in a large, grease-stained cloth stood at the back, behind which were several doors. A young woman about the same age as Cress and Cinder stood behind the counter, fiddling with something on the cloth.

She had vibrant blue hair that hung down to her shoulders and a sweet face which, despite her youth, was creased with laugh lines. She wore the standard top and trousers that Cinder had always made sure all her employees wore, but they seemed to artfully clash beneath her apron, all in bright colours, the blue of her hair picking out the turquoise polka dots against the yellow background. She seemed to glow against her surroundings, although nothing in this room could be described as drab, with strange intriguing shapes as far as the eye could see.

Cinder always treated people like Cress always imagined a friend's mother treating you, with care and concern and calm, noticing the things that annoyed you and doing her best to stop them. But this girl screamed excitement and fireworks. Cress had the feeling like she might be the type of person to talk quickly and ceaselessly seek action, dizzying people with her enthusiasm whilst simultaneously charming them with it.

So, pretty much the polar opposite of Cress herself.

The moment the door swung shut, the girl glanced up and locked her clear gaze on Cress's trembling figure, leading the smaller girl to wonder for an instant why she hadn't looked up when the door originally opened. But that thought was waved way as easily as morning mist when the young woman clapped her hands - clad in gloves - together with a smile and a small squeal.

"You must be Cress! Cinder told me to expect you. I didn't think you'd be this pretty." Cress's blue eyes widened and her cheeks turned the colour of cloth that had been used to hold blackberries. "But that dress, nice as it is, certainly doesn't do you justice."

If it was possible, Cress's eyes widened further, until they were practically oceans, swimming with confusion and nerves.

Fortunately, at that moment one of the doors behind the woman opened and Cinder stepped out. Her brown hands were covered by gloves and her straight hair pulled back in her perpetually messy ponytail. The smear of grease she'd wiped across her forehead was still there and Cress idly wondered if she knew it was there to begin with.

All of this was normal for Cinder. What wasn't normal, however, was the frown etched into her face. Not a frown of concern, or confusion, or concentration, but one that attributed meaning to her tense shoulders and jittery hands. It made her look unsettled.

And on calm, collected Cinder, who only ever got flustered, unsettled was a disturbing look.

Cinder's frown deepened as she glanced at the small watch she always wore with the face on the paler underbelly of her arm, then she glanced up to spot Cress hovering near the doorway and her brow cleared. "You're here! Time to head off then." She glanced at the woman with blue hair. "Iko, if you don't want to come that's-"

"I'm coming," Iko said, with a commanding sense of finality. "Who knows what fashion horror you'll concoct without my guidance?"

Cinder wore as small smile as her employee blatantly insulted her, leaving Cress looking on in befuddlement. She was sure that if any of her father's clients - or even her father himself - had heard that amount of disrespect from their workers, they wouldn't have been impressed. But Cinder brushed it off like it was nothing. Like it was an everyday occurrence.

Like they were friends, and a certain extent of teasing was welcome.

As she passed a chair tucked in the corner, Cinder slung a light brown jacket over her arm and shrugged on a tan shoulder bag. She flashed Cress a shy smile, then ushered the other two out of the door, pausing only to turn the open/closed sign to read _closed_ and to lock the door behind her.

"Cinder's letting me skip work for once," Iko whispered in awe, staring at the locked door. She locked gazes with Cress, who was starting to feel slightly stifled by the girl's enthusiasm. "This has never happened before."

* * *

"Iko, you know there's a limit on the price, right?" Cinder butted in as they walked out of _another_ store empty-handed, once again displaying her uncanny knack of knowing when Iko was about to or was doing something that made Cress uncomfortable and seeking to correct it.

Cress turned her head away as Iko retaliated, choosing to fix her gaze on a red-haired girl with wide curves standing outside a café talking to a blonde waitress. "Yes, but if she just swallowed her pride and let us help, we could do so much better!" The blue-haired girl insisted, waving her arms about with such vigour she almost slapped her friend's in the faces. Cress was determined to buy this dress with her own money, earned by her, to try and dredge up some independence in the face of such a binding commitment. Unfortunately, that meant she had very limited savings to tap into; her job at Kai's company may be impressive, but didn't pay massively. The man had tried to offer her a pay rise many a time, but she'd always declined, unsure about whether it was because she was friends with his wife, or actually deserved it.

And now her stupid pride had come back around to bite her.

"I think it's a good message," Cinder insisted. "I agree with Cress. If she can't have total independence now, how can she later?"

Iko had no response to that. Cress wondered distantly where Cinder had gained the ability to shut someone up so efficiently. Or was that just with Iko?

"Speaking of which," the woman in question continued, turning her brown eyes on Cress. "Who did you say you were engaged to?"

"Carswell Thorne," Cress replied quietly, finding she didn't want to discuss it. She inwardly flinched as Cinder's eyes widened and she snapped her fingers in that way that tells you someone's had a brainwave. Iko leaned in a little, clearly curious to hear what had elicited her friend's reaction.

"I know him!" She exclaimed, eyes flicking back and forth as she thought. "Yes. I _thought_ your description of him sounded familiar." Sensing the exasperation at her uncharacteristic theatrics, Cinder looked back down to Earth and explained, "One time I was called out to fix his car. It was quite funny actually. He was standing in his garage fussy over it, asking me over and over 'Will she be okay? Will she be okay?' 'Can you fix my ship?'" Cinder snorted in an unladylike manner. "At which point I got confused and he explained to me petulantly that the car was his ship and showed me where he'd even painted the name on the side: _The Rampion._ It irritated me enough that when it turned out he'd just run out of petrol, I was in such a bad mood I marched out of the place without demanding payment."

Cress crinkled her nose. That sounded like Carswell. "He annoys me a lot. He's such an-" She cut herself off.

Cinder raised an eyebrow, not even trying to hide her amusement. "What Crescent about to swear?" She inquired politely, breaking off in a laugh.

At the precise moment Cress noticed Iko's lack of comment, she turned to find the girl observing her thoughtfully, tapping her chin. "Are you quite sure you hate him?" She asked curiously. "You don't really talk about him like you do."

"What? How do I talk about him?" Cress spluttered.

"Like-" Clearly the blue-haired girl found her mortification as she realised what she meant all too funny, breaking off abruptly to double over in a violent guffaw. Cinder surveyed it with increased amusement.

She turned her raised eyebrow on Cress, who capitulated before she'd even asked the question. "Fine. I- I may have had the slightest crush on him when I was eleven." She admitted, before saying "Stop it!" at Cinder's stifled giggle. "I was eleven! Besides," she continued, a little bitterly, "When we were little he'd share all these stories of heroic things he did, like defending his crush from bullies. But then a year later - usually when I next saw him - I would ask him to tell the stories again, and he'd laugh in my face, and explain that he only defended her because she did his Maths homework!"

Cress wasn't used to ranting, so the feeling of unexplainable anger was alien. She barely noticed that both of her companions' expressions had dropped into seriousness. "He's insufferable! Insufferable, and arrogant, and boastful, and big-headed, and-"

She was cut off my Cinder grabbing her arm. "Cress, calm down. We get it; you hate him."

Cress immediately shut her mouth, blood blooding her cheeks. She bent her neck so her swinging locks obscured her face from view.

She barely registered the footsteps behind her, and jumped when a new voice spoke. "You really do keep the oddest company, don't you, Cinder?" Came the laughing voice. Cress looked up to see the redhead she'd noted earlier smiling at the mechanic. She was noticeably shorter than Cinder, but their large, friendly eyes reflected the same emotion. Then the newcomer swept her gaze over Cress and Iko, and Cress had to fight not to recoil from the intensity. "These two look like polar opposites," the stranger remarked bluntly.

"You could say they are, Scarlet," Cinder replied, meeting Cress's eye with a twinkle. "That's exactly it."

Iko, who clearly hadn't been paying attention to anything, suddenly let out a small shriek. "Cinder! You have to get a new coat," she insisted, staring into the depths of the clothes store they'd unwittingly stopped outside of.

Cinder touched her current coat, held over her left arm, almost protectively. "What wrong with this one?" She demanded indignantly.

Iko gave a snort of derision. "It's brown," she said simply, as though the sentence could reveal the secrets of the universe if one looked hard enough. "And - don't take this the wrong way - but you're so _boring_. Normally you'd look very pretty. But you only ever wear shades of brown, you have a brown coat, a brown bag," she gestured at the incriminating items with hopelessness. "And with this whole monochrome scheme, one day, you're going to walk into some woods and everyone will go 'Where's Cinder?' and you'll have turned into a tree."

Cress genuinely thought Cinder would turn into one there and then. She just stood there, flabbergasted, opening and closed her mouth without speech. Cress couldn't help the fit of giggles that seized her, and Scarlet gave a short but sweet chuckle.

The girl shook her head. "You definitely keep odd company, my friend."

* * *

Scarlet, it turned out, was an invaluable addition to their, as Iko put it, 'shopping spree'. Meaning she was greatly helpful to Cinder when it came to knocking sense into Iko's flamboyant choices. Whenever the blue-haired girl recommended something, Scarlet vetoed it with a bluntness that Cress found almost shocking.

From what Cress could glean from Cinder and Scarlet's enthusiastic conversation, Scarlet worked at her grandmother's farm and had just been dropping off her last food delivery of the day at The Rieux Tavern, and - Cress wasn't certain but she thought she'd heard right - the blonde girl she'd seen the redhead talking to was the girl she referred to as Ѐmilie, who was apparently a waitress there. Scarlet, with no other plans for the day, had graciously agreed to accompany them and help rescue their souls from Iko's enthusiasm, insisting that she knew what it was like to be subjected to it and wouldn't wish that fate on anyone. The girl in question only scowled jokingly.

What with two sceptics on hand, and someone who seemed to think that anything might work, Cress inwardly despaired that they might never find something.

Finally, something caught her eye. She'd been lagging behind as they passed a second-hand clothes shop, and when she saw the dress in the window she stopped altogether, leaving the others to pause in their conversations and turn to see what had her so enthralled. She heard Iko's faint questioning as to why they'd stopped for something so... _simple_ , but the other's girls' silences spoke their awe in a way no words ever could.

It was simple; the simplest thing they'd seen since they started, but by far the most striking. A pale blue - almost white - bodice with darker, floaty material falling away at the waist. Intricate gold embroidery curled round the left side of the dress, depicting strange fiery flowers and hummingbirds flitting around them. A high, modest neckline was edged with a collar of velvet the same shade of dark blue as the bottom. Cress instantly fell in love with it.

Before anyone else could but in and say something she mustered a courage and independence she hadn't realised was there and announced, "It's perfect."

No one argued when she marched in and bought it for far less than it was worth, it being second-hand. No one raised any protests when she bought it with her own money. No one objected when she asked if she could head home and leave them to it, or when she carried the specimen out into her car and drove off.

She wore a small smile all the while she was doing it.

* * *

 **Disclaimer: I don't own The Lunar Chronicles. All the characters and anything else from the books belongs to Marissa Meyer. I only own the plot.**

 **I'm really uncertain about this chapter, though I'm not sure why. I'm sorry if the characters seem kind of OOC; I'm doing my best for them not to be.**

 **What did you think?**


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